564 
NATIONAL PHARMACOPOEIA. 
be overcome, the arrangements respecting the mode and con- 
ditions of publication might have given rise, as on former 
occasions, to various questions causing delay in the result. 
The provision in the Aet of Parliament being imperative, and 
the funds which will be at the disposal of the Council being 
available for any of the purposes contemplated by the Act, 
there will be no obstacle to the completion of the work 
within a moderate time. It may be presumed that the pro- 
ceeds arising from the sale of the Pharmacopoeia will even- 
tually cover all the expenses of compilation and printing; but 
in the preliminary labour of producing such a work a con- 
siderable outlay is necessary. The voluntary exertions of 
Pharmacopoeia Committees are, of course, valuable ; but the 
needful investigations and experiments require the services 
of practical men to an extent which could not fairly be 
claimed without proper remuneration. Conferences will also 
be necessary between the representatives of the three Colleges* 
whether in the capacity of members of the Medical Council 
or otherwise, and provision must therefore be made for the 
payment of travelling expenses, as well as for the remunera- 
tion of an editor. 
“ Although it is not yet known into whose hands the work 
will be entrusted, the subject is exciting considerable interest ; 
and as soon as the needful arrangements are completed 
under the Act, the Pharmacopoeia Committees already con- 
stituted will be prepared to render such assistance as may be 
required. We are informed that the Edinburgh College of 
Physicians has already entered upon the subject in anticipa- 
tion of the reconstruction of the work under new auspices, 
for although the authority under which the Pharmacopoeia is 
to be published is changed by the recent Act, it must not be 
supposed that the Colleges of Physicians will relinquish their 
interest in, or influence over, the materials of which it will 
consist. 
“The Pharmacopoeia Committee of the Pharmaceutical 
Society in London, appointed in August, 1854, under the 
sanction of the London College of Physicians, has repeatedly 
conferred with the Pharmacopoeia Committee of the College, 
and some brief notices of its proceedings have appeared in this 
journal. The result of each meeting of the Committee is re- 
corded in the minutes, and may be available when the several 
portions of the Pharmacopoeia are under consideration. The 
Committee commenced its proceedings by issuing a list of the 
entire Materia Medica and preparations, taken from Squired 
edition of the Pharmacopoeias of London, Edinburgh, and 
Dublin ; copies of which w r ere forwarded to chemists 
